1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to capture and display of digital image data.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a digital camera, light from a scene passes through a lens which functions to focus and direct the light onto photosensitive cells, i.e., photosites, of a semiconductor chip called an image sensor. The photosites react to incident light to create electrical signals proportional to the incident light. The electrical signals produced by the photosites are processed through an analog-to-digital converter (ADC). The ADC analyzes electrical signals received from the image sensor and converts the electrical signals to digital data which is stored by the camera as the scene image.
The horizontal and vertical extent of a scene that can be captured in a single digital image is limited by the amount of light that a lens can capture and focus onto the image sensor. Therefore, due to lens limitations, a situation often occurs in which an entirety of a scene cannot be captured in a single image. One way of handling this situation is to obtain a wide angle lens that is capable of capturing the entirety of the scene in a panoramic image. However, obtaining the wide angle lens requires additional cost. Also, the wide angle lens can be clumsy to carry, particularly when the digital camera is small or embedded within a handheld electronic device. Furthermore, some digital cameras, such as those embedded within cell phones, may not be configured to accommodate the wide angle lens.
In view of the foregoing, an apparatus is needed to allow for generation of a panoramic digital image without reliance on a wide angle lens.